Computers are growing smarter by the moment, so it seems. They forget nothing. They seem to be learning how to learn. Improving at a rate we will never keep pace with. So is artificial intelligence going to replace all of us by making our lives pointless? Answer? No. There are many things AI and robots can do and will learn to do better than us, but not everything, especially not the most important part of you. Today on Aspire John, where AI fails. Worship is our focus, and today we read Psalm 86 together. In our Bible readings, we behold the beautiful picture of the destiny of humanity, that all the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. Psalm 86-9. That's where all of history is headed. All worship from every nation on earth. To start the month we read Psalm 73, which is a Psalm on the mind of Daniel in Richmond, Virginia. Pastor John, hello and thank you for taking my question. My friend believes that emotions aren't all that important in the Christian life. I completely disagree with him, and to do so I point to Psalm 73, verses 25 and 26, where the Psalmist expresses deep affection for God, saying, Whom have I in heaven but you, there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you? How do you view the role of emotions in our relationship with God? I know this is big for you, so how would you talk to my friend? I suppose it would be honest of me to say that answering this question is like defending my life. It's huge, yeah. It's everything, yeah. I mean, why would I devote the last 55 years of my life to teaching that emotions, affections in the Christian life are not icing on the cake of commitment. They are part of the cake. They are not a caboose at the end of the train of obedience. They are in the engine. That's what I've been giving myself to for all these years. Why are emotions, what I like to call spiritual affections, to distinguish them from the trembling of your hands or butterflies in your stomach or wobbly knees or other physical kinds of dimensions? That's not what we're talking about with emotions and spiritual affections. Why are they so important in the Christian life? Let me start with an answer that you're not going to find in any of my books because it's just too recent. So I thought instead of just rehashing all the 12 or 13 arguments I use over and over again when answering this question, here's one we've talked about, Tony, but hasn't shown up yet in any book because it's new, namely it has to do with artificial intelligence. So let's start with artificial intelligence and what it means to be human. The emotional life of the soul, let's be specific, the satisfaction of our soul in Jesus has everything to do with our own ultimate identity as human beings. This is a big deal, not marginal. Who are you matters? What are you made for? What are you threatened by? And I ask that just because one could be threatened by artificial intelligence because if you think your most defining essence as a human being is the power of reason or thinking or intelligence or speech or language, you're in trouble. Really a machine can think and speak better than you can, better than I can. Is that threatening to you? Does it give you a sense of unease or even maybe panic that, well, maybe we're not anything more than the accumulation of biological machine parts and the brain is nothing more than a computer put together by matter and time and chance. I think that would make me be afraid. Like if I thought that my most essential identity was now done by a machine, I think my life would be just about ready to disintegrate. But I don't think that. I don't think it about me. I don't think about anybody listening to this podcast and I don't think it about you, Daniel, or your friend that you're talking to. That's not the essence of who you are as a human being in God's image. The spiritual capacity of your soul to see and savor, savor. That's an emotion as I'm describing it. It's an emotion of the soul. It's a capacity of the soul to delight and rejoice in and treasure the capacity of your soul to see and savor the glory of Jesus is the essence of your uniqueness as a human being. When Jesus says to you at the end of the age, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. He will be welcoming you into the consummation of your human nature. This is what you were ultimately made for sharing the joy of your master. You will experience the fullness of your meaning as a human being when you share in God's delight in God. This is my beloved son, the father says. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. That is in whom I take great delight and the son in turn loves the father with a kind of love that finds its fullest possible enjoyment in the father's glory. And when he welcomes us into the joy of our master, we will see and savor God with the very joy that God has in God. And that will be the consummation of our humanity and the consummation of our capacity to glorify God at the same time. No machine, no computer, no artificial intelligence will ever duplicate the spirit or reality of the soul's enjoyment of God. So that's my first answer. It is not marginal. It is huge. That's what I would say in response to the statement that emotions aren't all that important in the Christian life. Good grief. How could anybody with a thoughtful reading of the New Testament say such a thing? They are, in fact, at the very core of what it means to be uniquely human. The soul's capacity to glorify God by enjoying Him forever is the essence of what it means to be human. Now, here's my second answer. This one I've said before, but it's, I choose it. It's the only other one I'm giving, and I choose to give it in answer to this question just because the older I get, the more significant this issue is becoming at Desire and God, the ministry, and in my life, namely what the emotions have to do with suffering. The New Testament teaches that to be a Christian is to suffer, no getting around, and that no one can suffer properly as a Christian without finding his supreme satisfaction in God. That's the answer. If you're a Christian, you're going to suffer. Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God, Acts 14. Whoever would live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 2 Timothy 3. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matthew 16. We are fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may be glorified with Him. Romans 8, 17. Every Christian must, must suffer. There is no other way to heaven. And therefore, how we suffer becomes a prominent, not marginal, prominent theme in the New Testament. And what we find is that none of us will suffer as we ought if we are not finding our supreme satisfaction in God. That is, if our heartfelt spiritual emotions are not awakened by the fact that the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life. Psalm 63, verse 3. Over and over again, the New Testament tells us what our emotions should be like when we come face to face with suffering with Jesus. Romans 5. Rejoice that an emotion in our sufferings. We rejoice in our sufferings knowing that the suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. In Corinthians 7, in all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. James 1. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various trials of every kind. Acts 5. The apostles left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. Matthew 5. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Emotion, rejoice and be glad. Emotion for your reward is great in heaven. 2 Corinthians 12. I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Hebrews 10. You had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew you had a better position in an abiding one. 1 Peter 4. Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings. 2 Corinthians 6. We are sorrowful yet always rejoicing. I ask you, not you Tony, but I ask the world, I ask you, could a person possibly read those nine texts and say that the emotion of joy in the face of suffering is unimportant. I'm at a loss. I could give at least a dozen other reasons like these two why the affections of the human heart are essential to the Christian life. We must be born again, but I will leave it with these two. Our experience of the emotion of heartfelt satisfaction in God defines the essence of our humanity and the Christian path of suffering. Yeah, the capacity of your soul to see and savor the glory of Jesus is the essence of your uniqueness as a human being. End quote. Amen, Pastor John. Thank you for that meditation because without deep, God-centered emotions forged in the path of suffering, we humans lose our core identity. We lose our destiny. We lose what it means to be authentically human in something that no bot can replace authentically, our worship. So then how do we avoid intellectualism with the Bible? Not just reading the Bible with our minds, but with our hearts. That's the other side of this discussion as well. How do we not become robots in our Bible reading? Do you want more on how to avoid intellectualism with the Bible? See the Aspects of John book on pages 25 and 26 for more on that. Well, speaking of affections and Bible reading and the things that AI can do, next time when we meet, we're going to be talking about the 1st Corinthians 13 Love Chapter. So be sure to read that in the readings in our Navigators Bible reading plan. Be sure to read it before we get back together to talk about how a spiritual gift plus that gift put in action minus love equals nothing. A spiritual gift put into action minus a motive of love equals nothing. So haunting text, but an important one we need to look at next time. I'm Tony Reinkie. I'll see you on Monday.
